1896: La F?e aux choux (The Cabbage Fairy). 1897: Le P?cheur dans le torrent; Le?on de danse, Baignade dans le torrent; Une nuit agit?e; Coucher director?Yvette, Danse fleur de lotus; Ballet Libella; Le Planton du colonel; Idylle; L?Aveugle. 1897/98: L?Arroseur arros?; Au r?fectoire; Endosse; Les Cambrioleurs; Le Cocher de fiacre endormi; Idylle interrompue, Chez le magn?tiseur, Les Farces de Jocko; Sc?ne director?escamotage, D?m?nagement ? la cloche de bois; Je vous y prrrends!. 1898/99: Le?ons de boxe. 1899/1900: Le Tondeur de chiens; Le D?jeuner designer enfants; Au cabaret; La Mauvaise
1904: L?Assassinat du Courrier de Lyon; Vieilles Estampes series (four titles); Mauvais coeur puni; Magie noire, Rafle de chiens; Cambrioleur et agent; Sc?nes Directoire series (three titles); Duel tragique; L?Attaque director?un diligence; Culture intensive ou Le Vieux Mari; Cible humaine; Transformations; Le Jour du terme; Robert Macaire et Bertrand; Electrocut?e; La R?ve du chasseur; Le Monolutteur; Les Petits Coupeurs de bois vert; Clown en sac; Triste fin director?un vieux savant; Le Testament de Pierrot; Les Secrets de la prestidigitation director?voil?s; La Faim . . . L? occasion . . . L?herbe tendre; Militaire et nourrice; La Premi?re Cigarette (The First Cigarette); D?part pour les vacances; Tentative director?assassinat en chemin de fer; Paris la nuit ou Exploits director? apaches ? Montmartre; Concours de b?b?s; Erreur de poivrot; Vol?e par les boh?miens (Rapt director?enfant par les romanichels); Les Bienfaits du cin?matographe P?tissier et ramoneur; Gage director?amour; L?Assassinat de la rue du Temple (Le Crime de la rue du Temple); Le R?veil du jardinier; Les Cambrioleurs de Paris. 1905: R?habilitation; Douaniers et contrebandiers (La Gu?rit?); Le B?b? embarrassant; Comment on dort ? Paris!; Le Lorgnon accusateur; La Charit? du prestidigitateur; Une Noce au lac Saint-Fargeau; Le K?pi; Le Pantalon coup?; Le Plateau; Rom?o pris au pi?ge; Chien jouant ? la balle; La Fantassin Guignard; La Statue; Villa director?valis?e; Mort de Robert Macaire et Bertrand; Le Pav?, Les Ma?ons; La Esmeralda; Peintre et ivrogne; On est poivrot; mais on a du coeur, Au Poulailler!. 1906: La F?e au printemps; La Vie du marin; La Chaussette; La Messe de minuit; Pauvre pompier; Le R?giment moderne; Les Druides; Voyage en Espagne series (15 titles); La Vie du Christ (25 tableaux); Conscience de producer?tre; L?Honneur du Corse; J?ai un hanneton dans mon pantalon; Le Fils du garde-chasse, Course de taureaux ? N?mes, La P?gre de Paris; L?vres closes (Sealed Lips); La Crinoline; La Voiture cellulaire; La Mar?tre; Le Matelas alcoolique; A la recherche director?un appartement. 1907: La v?rit? sur l?homme-singe (Ballet de Singe); D?m?nagement ? la cloche de bois; Les Gendarmes, Sur la barricade (L?enfant de la barricade). 1910: A Child?s Sacrifice (The Doll). 1911: Rose of the Circus, Across the Mexican Line, Eclipse; A Daughter of the Navajos; The Silent Signal; The Girl and the Bronco Buster; The Mascot of Troop ?C?; An Enlisted Man?s Honor; The Stampede; The Hold-Up; The Altered. Message; His Sister?s Sweetheart; His Better Self; A Revolutionary Romance; The Violin Maker of
1895?secretary to L?on Gaumont; 1896 (some sources give 1900)?directed first film, La F?e aux choux; 1897-1907?director of Gaumont film production; 1900?using Gaumont ?chronophone,? made first sound films; 1907?moved to United States with husband, who was to supervise Gaumont subsidiary, Solax; 1917?ceased independent production, lectured on filmmaking at Columbia University; 1919-20?assistant director to husband; 1922?returned to France; 1964?
Legion of Honor, 1953.
Saint-Mand?, 1 July 1873.
Attended the Convent du Sacr?-Coeur, Viry, France 1879-85; religious school at Ferney, and brief term in Paris; studied stenography.
Married Herbert Blach?-Bolton, 1907 (divorced 1922), two children.
In Mahwah, New Jersey, 24 March 1968
Alice Guy was the first person, or among the first, to make a fictional film. The story-film was quite possibly ?invented? by her in 1896 when she made The Cabbage Fairy. Certain historians claim that films of Louis Lumi?re and Georges M?li?s preceded Guy?s first film. The question remains debatable; Guy claimed precedence, devoting much effort in her lifetime to correcting recorded errors attributing her films to her male colleagues, and trying to secure her earned niche in film history. There is no debate regarding Guy?s position as the world?s first woman filmmaker.
Between 1896 and 1901 Guy made films averaging just 75 feet in length; from 1902 to 1907 she made numerous films of all types and lengths using acrobats, clowns, and opera singers as well as large casts in ambitious productions based on fairy and folk tales, Biblical themes, paintings, and myths. The ?tricks? she used?running film in reverse and the use of double exposure?were learned through trial-and-error. In this period she also produced ?talking pictures,? in which Gaumont?s Chronophone synchronized a projector with sound recorded on a wax cylinder.
One of these sound films, Mireille, was made by Guy in 1906. Herbert Blach?-Bolton joined the film crew of Mireille to learn directing. Alice Guy and Herbert were married in early 1907. The couple moved to the United States, where they eventually set up a studio in Flushing, New York. The Blach?s then established the Solax Company, with a Manhattan office. In its four years of existence, Solax released 325 films, including westerns, military movies, thrillers, and historical romances. Mme. Blach??s first picture in the United States was A Child?s Sacrifice (in 1910), which centers on a girl?s attempts to earn money for her family. In her Hotel Honeymoon of 1912, the moon comes alive to smile at human lovers, while in The Violin Maker of Nuremberg, two apprentices contend for the affections of their instructor?s daughter.
The Blach?s built their own studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, a facility with a daily printing capacity of 16,000 feet of positive film. For its inauguration in February of 1912, Mme. Blach? presented an evening of Solax films at Weber?s Theatre on Broadway. In that year she filmed two movies based on operas: Fra Diavolo and Mignon, each of which were three-reelers that included orchestral accompaniment. Her boldest enterprises were films using animals and autos.
Cataclysmic changes in the film industry finally forced the Blach?s out of business. They rented, and later sold, their studio, then directed films for others. In 1922 the Blach?s divorced.